Sheriff says department is short-handed, lowest paid in vicinity
Butts: “Salary is part of it, but I think we also have a society today that doesn’t want to work.”
Sheriff Daniel Butts told the Bandera County Comissioners last week during his annual report that his deparmtent is continuing to lose people to higher-paying jobs.
“We’ve lost a couple more jailers and one dispatcher. So we’re short-handed with patrol, the jail, and dispatch,” said Butts.
Responding to a question from Comissioner Jody Rutherford, Butts said salary was part of the reason for the departures, noting Bandera has the lowest paid sheriff’s force in the vicinity.
Butts said school districts all over the state are looking for employees and paying more than Bandera and offering time off during the summer.
“I don’t know what the answer is,” he said.
Rutherford responded, “The answer is we’re probably gonna have to bite the bullet. All of this bunch out here that want to keep lowering the taxes … we have to say, ‘hey, y’all are not gonna have a sheriff’s department unless you pay them yourselves, or we’re gonna have to raise taxes. That may be cruel to go at it that way but if we can’t pay, we can’t have anybody work for us.”
Butts responded, “Salary is part of it, but I think we also have a society today that doesn’t want to work.”
Judge Richard Evans added, “We have a society that doesn’t support law enforcement.”
Butts replied, “The way we are looked at nowadays, if I were looking for a job, I don’t know that I would choose law enforcement.”
Rutherford said, “And the courts are against you too.”
Evans quipped, “Some courts.”
Per the 2022-2023 County budget adopted in September 2022, the budget will raise more revenue from property taxes than the previous year’s budget by $2,195,184, which is a 13.72 percent increase from that year’s budget.
The property tax revenue to be raised from new property added to the tax roll this year is $482,053.